amazon debut
Last week, amazon listed my book The Fiction Class on its web site. There’s no picture yet and the book is not actually on sale (though you can preorder it), but still. It’s a watershed moment. There am I, right on top of Walter Breen who wrote a book about U.S. coins. Or so far I’m on top of him.
As soon as I was listed, my husband called to inform me that I was ranked 174,236 on the amazon list. I thought that was pretty good, given that it was the first day, but I told him that I really didn’t want to start worrying about the ranks. I’m way too anxious to start thinking about things like that, I have a ton of other work to do and I can’t do it if I’m sitting here worrying about my ranking on amazon.com.
“This way madness lies,” I said.
“You’re absolutely right,” my husband replied.
One hour later he called to inform me that I had “plummeted” to 196,452.
For those who wonder, the amazon rankings show where your book is compared to all the other books amazon is selling, but it ranks them on an hour by hour basis depending on how many books you’ve sold that hour. Which, if I am understanding it right, means that if you sold 1,000 books in one hour and none the next, your ranking would go down. (J.K. Rowling is at the top of the list, as you might imagine, and is likely to stay there for a long time.) And yes, I do wonder if I placed an order for 10,000 of my books, would that push me to the top of the best seller list. And could I then cancel the order?
I am trying really hard to be zen about this. I truly am so delighted to have a book on its way to publication that I cannot get too stressed about my rank. But it’s hard. On some level I’m still back in elementary school, waiting to be chosen for the volleyball team, and I’m not even sure that that’s relevant.
So I have promised myself that I will only check amazon five times a day. And that I will not be too excited that my rank is now, as my husband says, “hovering” around 30,000. And I will keep in mind that there will be bad reviews and that some people will hate my book and some people won’t buy it, and it’s all fine (as long as those people aren’t my editor and agent).
August 17th, 2007 at 10:13 am
about amazon numbers— the night my book, Hats & Eyeglasses: A Family Love Affair with Gambling was put up on amazon, it shot up to number 495! i was freaking out, until i realized it was because my sister, best friend, cousins etc all ordered 10 copies. i watched it religiously for a week— i went down to 360,000, up to 25,000. then i wised up. my book is months from coming out, hasn’t been reviewed yet, is just beginning to generate buzz. i read lots about amazon rankings, and know that i’d be better off writing than tracking my book. which is what i’m doing now, working on a new book. i’ll wait til my pub date before i check it out again. martha
August 17th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
If you click on the link to your name, we see other books by Susan Breen. Namely: Creating Your Dream Kitchen, Creating Your Dream Bathroom, and Entertaining for Wimps. I’m quite sure you aren’t the author of those first two, and fairly sure you’re not the author of the third one. As of now, The Fiction Class (though still months away from release) is the leader in rank among the Susan Breen books.
August 20th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
I tried checking the ranks of two anthologies I contributed to, and the way the numbers fluctuate made me insane, so I vowed not to look again. Well, at least until my own book makes it up there!
Enjoy the ride.
August 24th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Well, I didn’t know that the books were even ranked until I read your blog this morning Susan. I finally found where that magic number is and my book, “The Bunko Babes” which you know is slated to release on October 6, 2007 is rated right now at 1 million something or another. So, I think I liked it better when I was just thrilled to have a book listed for sale on Amazon. Well, back to work on my website. My publisher is on my tail about getting a blog going and getting the word out now that we are getting close to release date. Take care and talk to ya soon. Looking forward to reading your book. I listed my web address for future reference. Hopefully, I’ll have it ready by September 1 or so.
August 24th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Congratulations on your Amazon numbers! I’m not sure that anyone is certain what the Amazon numbers mean in terms of units moved, except that anything under 100,000 is good. A number at any given time is probably meaningless; what’s meaningful is finding out what the average number for a stretch of time is—24 hours, a week, a month, since publication. You can get those tracked for free at TitleZ.
It’s my understanding that Amazon doesn’t track individual sales, but sales to unique buyers—in other words, they’ve figured out how to keep you from goosing your numbers by buying a bunch of copies of your own book.
This is all just stuff I’ve heard, mind—I’ve got no inside track at Amazon or TitleZ.
Broos
http://www.brooscampbell.com
August 29th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Thanks so much for the comments. When not checking out my amazon rankings, I like to read the blogs and websites of people who comment here and I just got to Leah’s, which is absolutely gorgeous. You can see it at http://web.mac.com/leahstarrbaker/iWeb/LeahStarrBaker/Welcome.html
August 30th, 2007 at 2:27 am
Susan, thanks for your kind comments. I’m quite proud of how it is turning out. Since I am the builder myself, I haven’t figured out all the little kinks. I appreciate you encouraging people to check it out.